Page 80 of The Edge

“Did you check Dak’s alibi for the time Jenny was killed?” Harper exclaimed, “Why in the world would Dak want to kill his own sister?”

“Oldest motivation of all—money.”

“What money?”

“Dak told me some developers want to buy Jocelyn Point. It would be worth millions. Now that Jenny’s gone, the value of Dak’s share went way up.”

Harper eyed Devine. “Okay, we’ll check it out. Thanks for the info.”

“You’re welcome.”

CHAPTER

37

LATER THAT DAY, AFTER SPENDINGtime in his room going over the case notes and his briefing book, and pondering how all of this tied together with what he had found out so far, Devine drove through the wind and rain to the spot where Jenny’s body had been found,andwhere Alex had also been attacked. As he stared out over the rugged terrain, Devine concluded that the events had to be connected in some way, which meant that the killer of Jenny Silkwell might have also attacked Alex, or at least knew something about it.

But what explained the men who had abducted him? And the woman he had heard? Fuss was right. They were foreigners, most likely, and while they might have reason to kill Jenny because of her ties to CIA, they almost certainly could not have been involved in what happened to Alex fifteen years ago.

He instinctively looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was trying to get a bead on him. That had been a way of life in the Middle East, because there someone was always trying to sneak up and kill you.

This case really came down to one linchpin.

Earl Palmer. He was lying about finding the body, of that Devine was convinced. And the police seemed to have no interest in following that up. Were they being loyal to a local, just equal parts incompetent or stupid, or were they complicit in whatever cover-up was going on?

But the thing was, Palmer didn’t strike Devine as a liar. He seemed just like everyone described him: salt of the earth, nursing perhaps the most painful loss any person can endure.

So why lie under those circumstances?

Is someone making you lie, Earl?

He drove off while the rain continued to pour down, and then abruptly transformed to sleet. And then, just as swiftly, it all stopped and the skies began to clear. The weather really was crazy up here, thought Devine.

He turned onto the main road as his phone buzzed.

It was Campbell. Devine hit the speaker function.

“First things first, Agents Saxon and Mann have made a partial trace of the men who kidnapped you.”

“What did they find out?”

“They arrived in the country the same day they came after you. Flew in from London. Before that we traced them to Brussels. They are a known quantity, killers for hire.”

“Like the guys on the Geneva train?”

“Yes, but at a higher level. You did well to survive, Devine.”

“Any idea who hired them?”

“Not yet. The organization you went after in Geneva has many resources. And while we hit them with a debilitating shot, we obviously didn’t knock them out. Now we’re doing a deep internal security audit here, trying to compartmentalize who knew about your assignment in Maine.”

“Must be a fairly short list.”

“It is, Devine, but we need proof. If we have a mole we’ll find the person and deal with them accordingly.”

“I hope I’m around to see it,” replied Devine. “Anything on the woman on the train? She might have been the one in the house that night.”

“Apparently a woman of many identities, a number of which we are currently running down. It seems most likely that she was engaged by the Geneva folks to deal with you after what you did to them.”

---